Thursday, June 28, 2012

Nora Ephron, I Like Your Style

 "My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life
one day have the potential to be the comic stories of the next."

"Sometimes I believe that some people are better at love than others,
and sometimes I believe that everyone is faking it." 

 "Reading is one of the main things I do. Reading is everything.
Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something,
become a better person. Reading makes me smarter."

"You can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream."

There are girls who are pretty, but maybe not the prettiest. They read a lot, and when they talk, sometimes people laugh even if they weren't telling a joke. They have a way with words, and they're curious, so they read other people's words. They are strong, and tell the truth, and aren't afraid to be girly and aren't afraid to believe in romance as real and flawed as it is in life.

There are girls who fall in love with the wrong man, then the right man, and girls who understand everyone's love lives better than their own. There are girls who find essential human truths, about love and family and life, and capture them so perfectly that the rest of us can only look to them for explanations.

Nora Ephron was one of those girls, and she was one of my idols. No amount of Nora's writing would ever be enough; I long for one last movie, but I'll take what I can get. This is a lovely remembrance, and the LA Times says she was like a cool aunt. She wanted to be Dorothy Parker, and the LA Times is right: We all wanted to be her.

1 comment:

Laura R. said...

I liked your remembrance better. I felt like I was reading about myself, which may sound vain, but maybe it's simply because I hope I'm like that. I didn't know Dorothy Parker was one of her inspirations until I read the Post's write up on her, but now I can totally see it! I love me some DP.